Politics|Hurricane Michael Ravaged the Florida Panhandle. Will Residents Be Able to Vote?

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Hurricane Michael Ravaged the Florida Panhandle. Will Residents Be Able to Vote?

More than 200,000 voters live in counties devastated by the storm. Officials are working to ensure they can vote in November, but damaged buildings and widespread power outages make that an uphill battle.

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A damaged apartment building in Panama City. Election officials in the area are scrambling to overcome power outages and communication problems. CreditCreditEric Thayer for The New York Times

Hurricane Michael was the worst storm to ever strike the Florida Panhandle, and it left a trail of destruction in its wake: It leveled buildings, knocked out electricity and cellphone service, and left thousands homeless and 16 dead in Florida.

And Election Day is in 21 days. How will people in these areas be able to vote?

That is an urgent question in the hardest-hit counties, home to over 200,000 registered voters in the state’s Second Congressional District, which in recent years has been represented by both Democrats and Republicans. The first day of early voting is Oct. 27.

Florida’s secretary of state, Ken Detzner, said in a statement it was his “number one priority” that “all registered voters, first responders and volunteers in affected areas are able to cast their vote safely and securely without any barriers.”

Officials say they are working to ensure that people in devastated communities can vote in the midterm elections. Here is a brief guide to how they are handling a thorny problem.

The central question: How can people vote?

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A Dollar General collapsed after Hurricane Michael hit Panama City last week.CreditScott McIntyre for The New York Times

That is the big question, and at the moment the answer is not clear.

The first step is establishing a way for election officials to communicate with voters, and that has not yet been possible in the hardest-hit areas, where electricity and cellphone outages are widespread.

That includes Bay, Gulf, Franklin, Jackson, Calhoun, Liberty and Gadsden Counties, said Paul Lux, the president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

Once that has happened, local election supervisors have “fairly broad authority for how to handle emergency situations,” Mr. Lux said.

Most of the counties have not announced new voting procedures, but Gulf County, southeast of Panama City — home to 10,216 registered voters — is an example of what can be done.

In a statement posted to social media, John M. Hanlon, the supervisor of elections in Gulf County, said conditions there were “catastrophic.” But voting will take place anyway.

He said voters in the county would not be able to vote at their normal, designated polling places on Election Day. Instead, they have the following options:

They can vote by mail.

They can come to the elections office to fill out an absentee ballot, or take one home and return it at a later date.

They can request that an absentee ballot be emailed to them. Once they complete it, they must fax it back along with a signed voter’s certificate. This procedure is a concession to the storm: In normal circumstances, voters cannot use emailed ballots.

They can vote at one of two “voting super centers” that the county will open on Oct. 26 and keep open until Nov. 6. They will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Hey, I’m Alex Burns, a politics correspondent for The Times. Send me your questions using the NYT app. I’ll give you the latest intel from the campaign trail.

How has the storm affected the election in Florida?

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Sara Violette, right, looked at the damage inside Kim Miller’s art studio in Simmons Bayou.CreditEmily Kask for The New York Times

Many of the designated polling places in Gulf County have been destroyed, and some of those left standing have been turned into interim shelters, rendering them unusable, Mr. Hanlon said.

Power outages in the county “could last weeks if not months,” he said, and many there were left without phone service, including his own office. (They kept internet access.) Similar conditions prevail in the other hard-hit counties, Mr. Lux said.

Mr. Lux said most county election offices received little damage — except in Bay County, home of Panama City, where wind sheered off its roof — and computer servers and voting machines remained intact. The real problem was almost everything else. What good is an electronic voting machine when there is no electricity?

“The biggest challenge for voters is information,” he said. But it has also been hard for officials to communicate with each other. He said he had not been able to contact election supervisors in all the affected counties.

A call with the election supervisor in Bay County — home to 120,953 registered voters — lasted 1 minute and 59 seconds before the call dropped. A second call on a burner phone lasted for a minute and a half. He said election workers were “almost in a communications blackout.”

“Where would a Bay County voter call to get information?’’ he said. “Their phones aren’t working, their fax machines aren’t working.”

What are the state and federal government doing?

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Downed trees fell onto homes in Lynn Haven.CreditJohnny Milano for The New York Times

Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach, Fla., on Oct. 10, one day after the voter registration deadline in Florida. The Department of State extended that deadline in counties where the storm forced public offices to close on Oct. 9, according to a statement from Mr. Detzner, the Florida secretary of state.

Aside from that, the state government appears to be in listening mode, maintaining regular communication with election supervisors in affected counties. Mr. Lux said local election officials felt they had received little help from the federal government.

“If you’re wondering what the government response has been, we’re sort of wondering, too,” he said.

Liam Stack is a political reporter. Before joining the politics team, he was a general assignment reporter based in New York and a Middle East correspondent based in Cairo. @liamstack

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: No Power, No Place to Live, And Election Is Coming Up. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe